I had bought this picture at a sale a few days before Christmas. I knew I wanted it somewhere in the new house. When we first moved in I had it leaning against the wall I wanted it on for a few weeks. I was afraid to put a hole in the wall to hang it. Not really sure why, I guess cause there weren't any and I was putting off making any. But I finally did and love the wall I put it on. It is right inside the front door and you can see it from the whole family/dining room.

The second hole came when Barb and Mark gave us this picture when they came to see the house for the first time. She said she had seen the picture and really thought it reminded her of me and our family.

So once those first couple holes were out of the way, Alicia and I went to town on this cross wall. This is a small wall in the dining room area but just what I wanted. Alicia had most of the crosses and then we got a few extras to make it complete.

When we initially ordered our cabinets we did so with no handles or any type of hardware cause we really thought that was the look and feel we wanted. But.....after a few weeks we decided we did want handles. I didn't like that some of the drawers felt hard to get into plus over time we knew that our hands were going to leave stains and overall just mess up the cabinets. We found some ones we liked at Lowe's so we bought them and then I had contacted one of the guys that worked on our cabinets to do the install on the side. It took him a couple of hours and he had them all done. I really love the way they look and am so happy we decided to add them.

So here are our new appliances. We went with stainless steel and actually just picked them out by knowing that we wanted stainless and also by what fridge would fit in the space. I knew I wanted a gas stove so that was also on the list. When we did the walk thru we were surprised to see that the stove had a griddle pan as well. We had no idea when we ordered the stove so it was a nice surprise.

Kev really wanted a fridge that he could get water and ice out of the door. I never wanted one cause I always thought that it took up too much space on the inside. But for this model it really doesn't take up too much and I do have to admit it's really convenient. I was worried the water and ice wouldn't taste good but we put in a water filtration system so the water on the fridge is filtered too and it tastes good. So now more water machine with big 5 gallon buckets.

What else should we do the day after Christmas and 4 days before move in but check on the house. That's right I said 4 days before move in. We are having our walk thru in 2 days and then will close on the 30th. There has been a major rush with getting everything done with the house as well as needing all kinds of paperwork again.....don't even get me started on that. But here's what we found, the back splash in our bathroom was put in as well as the mirror. Doesn't it look awesome? I love it and it really ties the bathroom together since it's in the shower too.

And then the landscaping is done. We have a very small yard which Kev is thrilled about. No more spending his days off doing yard work and taking care of the pool. So we did pavers on the patio, not sure why I didn't get a picture of that and then we brought them out a little bit past the house. This is a spot where we'll put a table and chairs set. Then we also have this small patch of grass. And like I said Kev won't be doing yard work, it's fake grass!!!

So the garage door and the front door are this dark brown which looks awesome with the tan house color as well as the brick edging and paver driveway and front porch.

This is the rest of the landscaping done. A few small plants that will grow nicely but not overwhelming, and then some palms. Simple, low maintenance and not desert. Well I guess it is a little desert since we did a rock yard but no cactus!!! Move in day is just around the corner.

Nothing new except that the landscape is being put in. When Kev was meeting with the landscaper and they were going over things he had to keep telling the guy we didn't want desert landscaping. When I went with him one time and the guy had this plan drawn up and what he was putting where I was like no, no, ugly, no way, never and so it went. We didn't want palo verde trees, and we didn't want cactus and we didn't want bougainvilleas. We did some research and found stuff we liked and we had three of these ficus trees in our backyard and loved them. So here is the start of the new yard. A nice big ficus tree.

It's so crazy how fast everything is moving now. Another trip out to the house and we found lots of surprises. Our granite was installed in the kitchen and both bathrooms. We picked out this kind of gray/white speckled granite for the kitchen to go with the cabinets and floors. And you know you pick it out with this little 4x4 square so who knows how it's really going to look. But once we saw it we loved it, especially with the subway tile back splash we picked to go with it. The only thing left to be done in the kitchen is the appliances.

For the two bathrooms we picked out the same granite and it's pretty much black. It does have a few specks of light gray in it but we really liked it as well. In our bathroom we did top mount sinks and in Alicia's we did an under mount. (Check me out using all the right lingo. Oh and did you know that where the toilet goes is called a water closet?) Anyway, we are also going to have a small back splash done before they put the mirror in.

This is the tile that is in the bottom of our shower.

Look at that shower head!!! I can already tell a nice hot fully flowing shower is going to be heaven. In the shower the decorative tile in there is what is also going to be our back splash on our sink. I love it.

We are even decorating outside. We decided to go with a paver driveway as well as a paver patio in the back. I love the way it looks. It's not done yet but there will also be pavers going from the driveway to a front porch which is going to all be pavers as well.

And this is the color of the house. A nice tan color with a little bit darker trim. Much much better and or course it was the first thing Kev noticed pulling up and made that same comment. "This is much much better, this is what I picked out." Too funny. Not too much longer and it will all be done and we'll be moving in.

Kev and I decided to go out and check on the house. We are driving up to the house and he's like, "are you kidding me? There's no way I would have picked that color." Now he is saying all this and we have barely pulled up to the house, we aren't even out of the truck yet. So we get out and he is just beside himself. "I hate it, I fucking hate it!! Why would we pick this?" And on and on it went. Now I'm not saying a word, cause I didn't like it either but I did not want to add fuel to the fire. In my mind I'm thinking....how the hell am I going to live with him bitching about the color of this house for the rest of our lives?

So we go inside and start checking out what else is new. They put the cabinets in. They are this grey color that we picked cause Kev had seen them on one of the HGTV shows that I watch, and then he started to look at them on Pinterest and we really liked them. We staggered them so they are not all in a straight line. Super excited about them. But as we are checking them out, the house color is still the topic of converstation..."I hate it, I just hate it."

They also layed the tile. It's kind of hard to tell how pretty it is cause it's dirty and all those white things are the spacers, but it's a dark gray. We had it installed at an angle. We saw it that way in one of the models and just loved it. It is in all the open living area and the hall bathrooom, and then there is carpet in the two bedroooms.

They also layed the tile for our shower. I just love the shower. Actually, I finally have a real shower. At the other house, there was not a shower in our bathroom and then the other two bathroom showers were tub showers. This one is going to be amazing with nice glass doors, a little bench and an awesome shower head. It's gonna be sooooo enjoyable.

Then in our bathroom we did a different tile. We both saw it and said WOW!! We were like, should we have put this in the whole house? I love the way it looks, especially with the grey cabinets.

So that's all that's new on the inside......but the outside is still being bitched about. We actually rode around the neighborhood for like an hour trying to see a house that's the color of ours and how it looks all finished with the garage and trim etc. Kev just could not get over the color and how much he hated it. So then I suggested that we go down to the models and go to the design center and check out the color to make sure it's right. When we got there our designer was there and she pulled our file and checked what color we picked and then showed us what it is. We told her that our house does not look like the samples. I told her how much Kev hated it and just wanted to know what we do now. She said "is it kind of like a yellow mustard color?" We told her yes and she said "that's the primer." Oh praise the Lord!!! So our house is not that ugly color? She explained it was the primer and that the color will be like the samples. I cannot even explain to you how relieved I was to know that I was not going to hear the color complaint for the rest of my life EVERY single day. lol All is good with what's happening with the new house. It's getting close!!

As of January 2009, I no longer have a job. It's not that I lost it, but after 26 1/2 years of working at the Post Office, I retired. According to everyone I know, I don't do anything all day, so I decided to start a blog. Now I can blog about what I don't do all day.
I am married to Kevin, who is the most awesome husband I could ever have. It's because of him, that I do not go to work any more. I love that and I love him for that.
Between the 2 of us we have 4 children. Hunter 31, Heather 29, Paul 28 and Alicia 26.